He brushes a piece of hair off of my face and cups the side of my neck. "I should have said it when you came in earlier, and I didn't. I thought about it all night, and I knew that whenever I saw you again, that I was going to make sure that I told you." I blink up at him, wide-eyed.
He leans forward, and I can feel his breath on my cheek. "You're beautiful, Mia."
I start to shake my head, but he doesn't let me. Those big, callused hands of his go to each side of my neck, holding me still. "No, let me finish. I don't know why I said what I said to King. There's so much going on in my mind, but I know I shouldn't have said what I did. The fact of the matter is, is I think you're beautiful... inside and out. The hair, the clothes, the makeup, none of that matters. It's you that shines with beauty. And I'm sorry if my careless remark made you feel less than that."
Our gazes are locked on each other, and I'm speechless. Ryan just told me I’m beautiful. I don’t know what to say to him, but I don’t have time to figure it out. In an instant, his lips are pressed against mine. What was probably meant to be a gentle kiss, a peck on the lips from one friend to another, turns into something more rather quickly. I breathe him in as his hands trail down my back and he holds me close against his hard chest. I angle my head, and he deepens the kiss while I moan.
He pulls back, breathless, staring at me as if it's the first time he’s ever looked at me. His hands rub into my shoulders, and I bite my lip to hold in the moan. His touch, his kiss, all of it feels good.
"Good night, Mia," he says huskily. I don't even have a chance to respond before he's out the door, and I'm standing here staring at the space he just moved from. I put my hands to my lips as if I can still feel the heat of his lips on mine. Did that really just happen?
Chapter 9
Ryan
The next afternoon, I’m standing in the office waiting on Mia. I’m trying to act busy, but I know that’s crazy. This is my ranch. Well, mine and my brothers’. I can be anywhere and no one would ask me what I’m doing. But here I stand thumbing through the filing cabinet waiting for Mia.
I hear her, and I turn just as she stops at the door. She’s surprised to see me, but she covers it up quickly. “Ryan! Hey.”
She walks over to her desk, and I can’t take my eyes off her. I saw her at breakfast this morning, but she talked to Nat most of the time. I kept trying to figure out how I could talk to her alone, but my brothers and I have been busy most of the morning. As soon as I was able to sneak away, I found myself here.
“Hey,” I tell her huskily. She has her hair pulled up in a high ponytail with a new blouse on. When she sits down, my eyes are instantly drawn to the hint of her cleavage in the V-neck shirt.
My mouth goes dry as I stare at her.
She flicks her long lashes up at me. She’s done something to them because they’re longer and darker than I remember. “Did you need help with something? Need me to look up another tag number?”
I clear my throat and walk over to her desk. I’m hovering, but I don’t care. I sit on the edge of her desk. “I was hoping we could talk about last night.”
She shoots out of her chair and goes the opposite direction from where I’m sitting. She walks over to the filing cabinet and opens it. “Oh yeah, what do you want to talk about?”
I’ve thought about what I’m going to say to her all morning, but now that she’s right here, I’m drawing a blank. I knew after that kiss last night that I wanted more with her, but I also know that Mia’s not someone I can just be with and not be sure about it. I don’t want to ruin what she has here, and I definitely don’t want to make her uncomfortable, but she floored me last night when she said that everyone knew she had a crush on me. I sure as hell didn’t know. But now that’s all I can think about.
“Well, for starters, that kiss... we should probably talk about that.”
I walk up behind her, and I’m about to reach for her when she slams the file cabinet closed and makes her way back to her desk. I grit my teeth and watch as she all but runs to get behind her desk. “Why are you avoiding me?”
She shakes her head and squeaks, “I’m not avoiding you.” She’s standing up, and she has her hands out to each side of her like she’s going to run if I take a step toward her. She’s freaked out, and that’s the last thing I want.
“You know I’d never hurt you,” I tell her and flinch. Fuck, surely she knows that about me. Right?
She seems to stand up taller at that. “I know you would never hurt me. Not the way you’re talking about.”
My head falls in shame. Damn. I know I’ve hurt her, and it fuckin’ kills me that I did. “I’m sorry for that, Mia. I’ll never hurt you again.”
She looks at me doubtfully, and I suck in a breath. It looks as if I have a long way to go in proving myself. “I was wanting to ask you something... I was wanting to know if you would go to dinner with me tonight.”
Her eyes widen. “You mean out... like the two of us?”
I laugh and take a step toward her. I move slowly because she still seems like she wants to run. “Yes, out on a date. Me and you. We could go into Whiskey Valley or Jasper if you want to.”
She is shocked. There’s no other way to describe it. Her mouth falls open, and she’s staring at me wide-eyed. I take a step toward her, and her mouth slams shut. She’s shaking her head and almost whispers, “I can’t.”
“You can’t or you don’t want to?”
She juts her chin at me. “First of all, I don’t think it’s a good idea. Secondly, I can’t. I sort of have plans tonight.”
I cross my arms over my chest and take two steps toward her. I ignore the part about me being her boss. “What kind of plans?”